Monday, January 6, 2014

MSNBC: School Shooters Should Be Confronted Unarmed

Last Monday The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's Richard Wolffe mocked the NRA's Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre who has stated "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Wolffe was citing the example of Antoinette Tuff who last August was able to successfully talk an armed man into surrendering. Wolffe named Tuff as his choice for "person of the year." And while I have no problem with that - Wolffe's ridiculous notion that Antoinette Tuff's success be used as the resolution to all school shootings is well... ridiculous.

Wolffe asserted his position with: "No, really, because when the NRA says the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, this woman single-handedly not only saved lives but changed the course of that ridiculous debate to show that the thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a country with a heart. And she has a heart."

Back in August on the same show, MSNBC contributor Frank Smyth stated "Lawrence, I think that Antoinette Tuff puts the National Rifle Association, Dirty Harry, and Clint Eastwood all to shame. They've peddled this myth that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. And this proves that that is not the case."

This was followed by a panel discussion about how this one incident discredited the NRA's position about good guys and bad guys with guns, even though throughout the discussion the panel members used words like "luck," "miraculous" and "providence", indicating that the incident was, in fact, an unusual case.

So now MSNBC asserts that all one needs is a heart to stop an armed person determined to shoot up a school or a theater or a political rally? Do they believe Adam Lanza or James Holmes would not have committed their atrocious crimes if someone had simply stepped up and talked to them? Really?

Transcripts from the panel discussion in August show these people simply have no clue about reality:

FRANK SMYTH, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: "Lawrence, I think that Antoinette Tuff puts the National Rifle Association, Dirty Harry, and Clint Eastwood all to shame.They've peddled this myth that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. And this proves that that is not the case. There are times when an active shooter needs to be actively stopped, but those are very few actual cases where that has occurred. And this demonstrates there are other approaches to public safety in our communities and schools that need to be talked about and pursued."

O'DONNELL: "And, Krystal, the police were on the scene fast enough, and they were on the scene fast enough to go in there with guns and intervene, and we have no idea what would have happened if they had."

KRYSTAL BALL: "Right, that's exactly right, and God bless Antoinette Tuff. What an incredible woman. We can't always count on there being an Antoinette Tuff at the school, in that position to be able to talk the person down, to be able to make that call. It's unfortunate, it's unbelievable that we have a system where guns are so prevalent, where they have proliferated so much in our society, that it can get to that point where someone can show up, a mentally disturbed person with an AK-47, and have to rely on someone like an Antoinette Tuff, as that last line of defense for these children. It's just an unbelievable situation."

O'DONNELL: "Ana Marie, the NRA has made sure that our mass murderers and our aspiring mass murderers are the best equipped in the world, and one of them walked in there today with the 500 rounds of ammunition, and the NRA did everything that they could to make him as effective as he could be today."

I have a suggestion for any of these people. The next time the police have an active shooter situation - how about one or all of them volunteer to walk up to the gunman and talk him down. Since they are so convinced it's the right way to handle an active shooter shouldn't they give us an example of how successful it can be? We'll wait for the news report to see if it works out...

About Me

I retired from Federal law enforcement in 2007 after 30 years of government service. I'm a conservative but not a Republican. And we have some problems here but the United States of America is still the greatest country in the world.